Pale Blue Dot
Sign in to savephotograph of planet Earth taken on 14 February 1990 by the unmanned Voyager 1 spaceprobe from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers
AI overview
"Pale Blue Dot" is a famous photograph of Earth taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from 6 billion kilometers away on February 14, 1990. The image matters because it captures our entire planet as a tiny, fragile speck in the vast darkness of space, offering a profound perspective on humanity's place in the universe.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Artist
- Voyager 1
- Type
- Astrophotography
- Location
- Interplanetary space
- Owner
- NASA
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe from an unprecedented distance of over 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles, 40.5 AU), as part of that day's Family Portrait series of images of the Solar System.
In the photograph, Earth's apparent size is less than a pixel; the planet appears as a tiny dot against the vastness of space, among bands of sunlight reflected by the camera. Commissioned by NASA and resulting from the advocacy of astronomer and author Carl Sagan, the photograph was interpreted in Sagan's 1994 book, Pale Blue Dot, as representing humanity's minuscule and ephemeral place amidst the cosmos.